The present invention relates to a newly developed mesitylene-cored amphiphile and a method of extraction, solubilization, stabilization, crystallization or analysis of a membrane protein using the same.
Membrane proteins play an important role in biological systems. Since these bio-macromolecules contain hydrophilic and hydrophobic portions, amphiphilic molecules are required for extraction of membrane proteins from cell membranes, and solubilization and stabilization of membrane proteins in an aqueous solution.
Membrane protein crystals with high quality have to be obtained for structural analysis of membrane proteins. To this end, the securement of the structural stability of membrane proteins in an aqueous solution has to come first. The number of conventional amphiphilic molecules that have been used in membrane protein research is 100 or more, while only five of them have been actively utilized in membrane protein structure research. These five amphiphilic molecules include n-octyl-β-D-glucopyranoside (OG), n-nonyl-β-D-glucopyranoside (NG), n-decyl-β-D-maltopyranoside (DM), n-dodecyl-β-D-maltopyranoside (DDM), and lauryldimethylamine-N-oxide (LDAO) (see Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2). However, since membrane proteins surrounded by these molecules easily denature or aggregate to cause loss of function, research for the function and structure of membrane proteins using these molecules has significant limitations. This is because conventional molecules have a simple chemical structure that fails to show a diversity of characteristics. Accordingly, there is a need for the development of novel amphiphiles with a new structure and excellent properties.
Thus, the inventors developed novel amphiphiles that can be used in membrane protein research, thereby reaching the present invention.